The usual duck or goose decoy is of one-piece construction suitable for floating on the surface of a body of water and having no moving parts. While decoys of this type may be satisfactory in some duck hunting situations, it has been found to be helpful to have one or more of the decoys of a group floating on a body of water provided with moving parts, such as wings, so that a live bird flying overhead more readily will be attracted to the group and will be enticed to join the group. This is considered to be true if one of the decoys shows a flapping of its wings occasionally or a retracting of its wings after a flapping motion.
Attempts in the past have been made to provide mechanized decoys with moving parts, such as moving wings or the like. For the most part, these are complex structures and are either too costly to produce and maintain or are extremely difficult to operate from a remote distance, such as by a user in a duck blind 20 and 30 feet away from the decoy. Moreover, most of these decoys have moving parts internally of the decoy body, thus requiring that forces for the moving parts be generated in a small space which gives rise to maintenance problems. Typical of these attempts are those disclosed in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,691,233; 2,835,064; 3,000,128; 3,916,553; and 3,927,485. Other decoy patents, although not disclosing movable parts on a decoy body, are as follows: U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,726,469; and 3,689,927.
In view of the deficiencies of the prior art decoys of the type mentioned above, a need has arisen for an improved mechanized duck or goose decoy having external moving parts wherein the decoy is simple and rugged in construction, is easy to operate and maintain, and can be produced at minimum costs.